Saskatchewan Roughriders' Otha Foster III knows the drill

Sure, the Saskatchewan Roughriders linebacker is enduring a tough season with the CFL team. But there’s no way that what he’s going through on the gridiron is worse than boot camp.

Long before Foster became a CFL player, he was a member of the United States Marine Corps.

“It changed my life,” the 27-year-old product of Angie, La., said in advance of Friday’s game against the host Edmonton Eskimos. “You see things from a different aspect. You’re grateful for more things when you see things like that.”

Foster was an all-state football player during his senior year at Varnado (La.) High School, even though much of his final season was wiped out when Hurricane Katrina hit his home state.

After graduating from Varnado, Foster decided to attend Southern University in Baton Rouge. But he was redshirted by the football team in the fall, a move that prompted him to leave Southern — and to become a Marine.

“I just felt like I needed to do something different,” Foster said. “School wasn’t going as planned for me and football wasn’t going as planned for me, so I had to make a change in my life.

“If I was going to go into the military, I wanted to go into the Marines because that’s the hardest (branch of the services) and the best one. I wanted the challenge and it gave me exactly what I wanted.

“Probably the hardest thing I ever did was Marine Corps boot camp.”

Foster began his life in the USMC at the infamous Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, S.C. The facility has been immortalized in films over the years, and Foster said it lived up to the image.

“The sand fleas, the temperature, the drill instructors — it was a shocker, man,” he said with a grin. “It completely changed my life. If I could make it through that, I just knew I could make it through anything.”

The drill instructors also lived up to their advance billing.

“They are exactly the way they are portrayed on TV and in movies — maybe even worse,” Foster said. “Those are some tough guys.

“They mean well, though. They’re trying to get you ready for what you have a possibility of facing in war.”

From Parris Island, Foster moved to Camp Lejeune, N.C., for combat training. There, he received all the skills necessary to be a Marine, including handling a weapon (he shot at an Expert level at the rifle range).

After 30 days at Camp Lejeune, Foster travelled to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in 29 Palms, Calif. There, he was trained in communications, which ended up being his job in the Corps.

Foster was deployed overseas once — his tour was in Africa — before being stationed in New Orleans. He was in the Marines for about 3 ½ years, including the last nine months or so as a reservist.

In 2009, he heard that football tryouts were being held at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Miss. He attended the tryout, was invited back to spring camp and made the team.

That only added to his workload, since he was still in the Marines.

“In (junior college), you play your games on Thursday most of the time,” Foster said. “I’d play my games on Thursday and on Friday I’d go to class and then I’d leave and go to New Orleans for my (Marine Corps) drills on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Then I’d go back Monday and be ready for school and practice.”

Foster got out of the Corps in 2010 and spent the 2011 and ’12 seasons at the University of West Alabama. In 2013, he signed as an undrafted free agent with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs but was cut in the pre-season.

He later signed with the Toronto Argonauts but was traded to the Eskimos in May of 2014. After two seasons in Edmonton, he signed as a free agent with Saskatchewan in February, bringing with him to Regina the work ethic and perspective he gained during his time in the Corps.

“After being a Marine, being able to come to work every day and have fun and be with the guys is a blessing,” Foster said. “There, you have guys who are in a combat zone who are stressing out.

“Even though I’m away from my family, I can call my daughter whenever I feel like it. You have guys there who don’t have that. And they go out and risk their life each and every day for us to be able to live the way we live.”

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